Wednesday for violating NASCAR’s rear suspension rules at the April 13 race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Penske will make one final appeal to NASCAR chief appellate officer John Middlebrook.

NASCAR suspended the crew chiefs, car chiefs and engineers for both Penske teams, as well as the team’s competition director, for seven weeks after determining that suspension parts on their cars were not approved and violated new rules prohibiting the rear suspension from rotating.

It also penalized drivers Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano and their teams 25 points each and fined the crew chiefs $100,000.

The suspensions were deferred pending the appeal and will be deferred pending the final appeal. Middlebrook, a former General Motors executive, will hear the final appeal on May 7.

“Obviously it’s a disappointing outcome,” Penske Racing owner Roger Penske said Wednesday afternoon. “We met with the panel for over four or five hours. It was a good process.

“I feel that we have a good case.”

It wasn’t good enough to convince the NASCAR appeals panel, which included Pocono Raceway President Brandon Igdalsky, former NASCAR Senior Vice President Paul Brooks and Bowman-Gray Stadium promoter Dale Pinilis.

“We take our inspection process very seriously,” NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp said. “We believe we do a strong and credible job with it.

“We think that the level playing field of competition now in the garage is the best it’s ever been. As the sanctioning body, we’ve got to uphold the rules and regulations that are in the rulebook.”

The penalties were issued after NASCAR had confiscated the parts and pieces from the cars of Keselowski and Logano prior to the Texas race.

Penske declined to talk about the specifics of the appeal. He has said that the team was working in a gray area, and Keselowski said it was his understanding that all the parts were approved.

By increasing rear skew, the car would be able to turn easier in the corner. Many teams last year had developed rear suspension systems to increase rear skew, and NASCAR added rules this year to curb many of those tricks.

With the penalty, Keselowski is sixth in the Cup standings, 59 points behind the leader. Logano is 17th, 43 points out of 10th, the cutoff for a guaranteed spot in the Chase.

At the hearing, Penske and NASCAR officials made separate presentations to the three-member board at the NASCAR Research & Development Center in Concord, N.C. The board can ask for more information or ask additional questions. The hearing was closed to the media.

The appeals panel typically upholds NASCAR penalties. Since 1999, it has heard 150 cases and upheld the penalties 106 times (71 percent). Penalties have been reduced 31 times (21 percent), eliminated 11 times (7 percent) and increased twice (1 percent).

“All I can say about the process is I think it is fair and equitable,” Penske said. “We had the opportunity to explain our case.”